Brad Pitt's Rep: Tom Cruise Slam Didn't Happen

Last week’s widely picked-up statement attributed to Brad Pitt, unfavorably comparing his WII movie Inglourious Basterds to Tom Cruise’s star vehicle Valkyrie, was not only “inaccurate,” Pitt’s manager tells PEOPLE, but “Brad has never even seen Valkyrie.”

The uncharacteristically harsh remark was originally published in a wide-circulation weekly German magazine, and, as could be expected, was reprinted internationally. Problem was, it was never uttered.

As for the two movies, both of which feature attempts on the life of German dictator Adolf Hitler, Cruise’s Valkyrie, after a troubled production history, was released late last year, to indifferent reviews and box office.

Director Quentin Tarantino, after premiering Inglorious Basterds to wildly mixed reviews at this May’s Cannes Film Festival, went back into the cutting room with it and opened the movie to the American public on Friday. While reviews still ran the gamut from four stars to fewer, most critics still singled out Pitt’s no-nonsense anti-Nazi Tennessean.

More telling, reports Variety, ticket sales totaled $37.6 million, an all-time high for a Tarantino movie.